1. ‘You have the same calendar we do?’
There’s a reason voters chose an outsider to take control of the government machinery. Restaurants’ obligations under pending menu labeling laws were “clarified” this week, and the communications were anything but illuminating.
On the federal level, the Food & Drug Administration issued a statement on Nov. 29 that was intended to clear up confusion about when chain restaurants are expected to post nutritional information on menus and menu boards. That’d be Dec. 1, or two days later, the missive explained, as if it was asking hundreds of thousands of businesses to leave a light on for an extra minute, not undertake a moonshot.
The potential source of the confusion was an earlier indication from the FDA that restaurants wouldn’t be held accountable for the new standards until May 5. That’s still the case, the agency said in its Tuesday clarification. There will be no enforcement of the rules until that date. Indeed, authorities are prohibited by a separate law from spending a single penny on policing the labeling mandates until that time.
Uh, come again? The industry is required to comply, but won’t really be required for another five months?